Hi, I thought I would just add a note of caution to this. Radiotherapy is not a benign treatment. I have seen a couple of patients with post radiotherapy recurrence and I can tell you that there is a lot more diffuse scarring after the treatment which makes any subsequent treatment very difficult and the skin is of a different texture again adding to the difficulty of surgery.

Radiotherapy used to be used for all sorts of things in this country and we gradually removed it because of the dangers. So while one shot may not be too dangerous, several will. Radiotherapy of all sorts is designed to kill things, which is why we use it for Cancer.

In addition on a personal note why go for a dangerous treatment which takes a week against NA at a single visit with less risks?

I've been against radiotherapy personally for about 3 years since Wolfgang first suggested that a trip to Germany (not possible due to mobility issues) might be the best option to treat my then single nodule. Now that my Dups has progressed (without contracture as yet) I am seriously thinking that radiotherapy might buy me precious time but then a post pops up calling it a dangerous treatment and reigniting all my previous fears.

I know surgery is dangerous as well but dangerous radiotherapy rings different bells with me.

You say treatments have been removed. Which treatments were discontinued due to the dangers? Isn't knowledge and equipment so much better these days that those abandoned treatments could be used today? I've read somewhere recently that 20% of radiotherapy cases for Dups don't work so I think that's a known risk.

You can find several UK nuclear medicine departments on the web, how does the radiation used in those compare with the radiation used for Dups? Isn't nuclear medicine similarly dangerous although clearly available?

At the end of the day we all want to avoid surgery, NA (if suitable) is one step away whereas radiothereapy is possibly two steps away?

I found this quite helpful, particularly the side effects and dose. I don't know how accurate it all is but it might be helpful for any discussion with a doctor? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_therapy



Edited at 04/16/08 12:15

Well I don't know, it says on the site above "while lymphoma tumors are treated with 20 to 40 Gy." which seems to suggest 20Gy minimum compared to 30Gy for Dups (although you say that could be reduced in future)? I'm not arguing, just trying make sense of the information. Radiation is radiation isn't it, whatever it's used for?

Edited at 04/16/08 12:45

Hi Wolfgang

I perhaps didn't make myself clear somewhere along the line. I've no contracture as yet but when you suggested radiotherapy about 3 years ago I had one small nodule in the palm in line with my ring finger. Like most people I suppose I assumed that to be a cyst of some sort. Since then I've got 3 flattish looking nodules and what looks like the start of a cord in the palm (about 2cm) in line with my ring finger. I've also got the early start of similar in line with my little finger and barely noticable nodules in line with my other finger. All in all it looks like potential grief over the horizon. I still have full use of my hand at the moment and thought that this is perhaps the last opportunity I'd get to try and delay or avoid some more drastic treatment, hence my sudden interest in this topic.

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Hello, I too am interested in radiation treatment since I was just diagnosed yesterday.... and still have full movement I type for a living so I want to keep my mobility as long as I can. I am looking for treatment in the US does anyone know of any treatment centers in the US? particularly near KC?

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List of clinics here Ivy. http://www.dupuytren-online.info/radiotherapy_clinics.html Not too many anywhere really.


Edited at 04/17/08 10:32